Organisational Behaviour Case Study: Sabina Hughes

Why did Ms Hughes fail in her new programmes?

Introduction

An HR manager named Sabina Hughes wanted to apply the theory of Herzberg to motivate the productivity and enthusiasm of staff. However, it did not make any effect and even cause some mistakes. Then, Ms Hughes’ idea was criticized by the company’s top management and they think it is simplistic. In this report, I am going to explain why the management consultant thought Ms Hughes’s idea is too simplistic, why this initiative caused so much difficulty and what I would do if I was Ms Hughes.

Theories of Maslow and Herzberg

We should understand about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two-factor theory firstly because it helps us to understand easier about the failure of Ms Hughes.

According to McLeod (2007), ‘Maslow (1943) stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs. When one need is fulfilled a person seeks to fulfil the next one, and so on’. Maslow classifies these need as five types. They are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs and self-actualisation. Maslow thought that we could put this five types of needs into a hierarchy which is normally stated using a ‘pyramid’ (Hall et al, 2008). That is showed in the figure 1. The needs at the bottom are basic needs and it will be less important following the increase of levels (Hall et al, 2008).

Figure 1 Maslow’s hierarchy needs

About Herzberg’s two-factor theory, in 1966, Professor Herzberg wanted to know about what motivated workers during the work (Hall et al, 2008). ‘One is mainly about motivators which mean factors could motivate people and other one is mostly about Hygiene factors which mean factors need to be met to prevent dissatisfaction and will not motivate in themselves’ (Hall et al, 2008, P. 134). In factors of motivators, there are many detailed factors, such as responsibility, sense of achievement and chance of promotion. For Hygiene factors, there are also some basic factors, such as pay, conditions and company policy, which is showed in the figure 2

Figure 2 Herzberg’s two-factor theory

I will explain why the management consultant thought Ms Hughes had taken too simplistic a view of human motivation using these two theories in the next part.

Reasons of thought from the management consultant

According to the case study, there are some information from the case study which shows that Ms Hughes thought too simplistic in the new programmes.